Betty Neels - The Secret Pool

‘A farewell tea party,’ he explained. ‘I’ll pick you up on my way back from Zeist—about two o’clock.’

He hung up and her pleasure turned to peevishness. ‘Arrogant man!’

All the same she greeted him pleasantly when he arrived, listened to his small talk as they drove towards his home and took care not to mention the fact that in two days’ time she would be gone. He knew, anyway, she reminded herself; it was to be a farewell tea party.

Lisa was waiting for them, sitting in her chair under the mulberry tree. She wound her arms round Fran’s neck, chattering away excitedly. ‘Is it a birthday or something?’ asked Fran. ‘There’s such an air of excitement.’

Father and daughter exchanged glances. ‘You shall know in good time,’ said the doctor blandly.

They took their time over tea, talking in a muddled but satisfactory way with Fran struggling with her handful of Dutch words and the doctor patiently translating for them both. But presently Nanny arrived and Lisa went with her without a word of protest.

‘I’ll see her to say goodbye?’ she asked, turning to wave.

Dr van Rijgen didn’t answer that. He said instead, in a perfectly ordinary voice, ‘I should like you to marry me, Francesca.’

She sat up with a startled yelp and he said at once, ‘No, be good enough to hear me out. May I say at once that it is not for the usual reasons that I wish to marry you; since Lisa was able to talk she has begged me for a mama of her own. Needless to say I began a search for such a person but none of my women friends were suitable. Oh, they were kind and pleasant to Lisa but they shrank from contact with her. Besides, she didn’t like any of them. You see, she had formed her own ideas of an ideal mama—someone small and gentle and mouselike, who would laugh with her and never call her a poor little girl. When I saw you at the prize giving at the Infirmary I realised that you were exactly her ideal. I arranged these days together so that you might get to know her—needless to say, you are perfect in her eyes…’

‘The nerve, the sheer nerve!’ said Fran in a strong voice. ‘How can you dare…?’

‘I think I told you that I would do anything for Lisa to keep her happy until she dies. I meant it. She has six months at the outside and you have fifty—sixty years ahead of you. Do you grudge a few months of happiness to her? Of course, it will be a marriage in name only and when the time comes,’ his voice was suddenly harsh, ‘the marriage can be annulled without fuss and you will be free to resume your career. I shall see that it doesn’t suffer on our account.’

Fran gazed at him, speechless. She was more than surprised; she was flabbergasted. Presently, since the silence had become lengthy, she said, ‘It’s ridiculous, and even if I were to consider it, I’d need time to decide.’

‘There is nothing ridiculous about it if you ignore your own feelings on the matter, and there is no time. Lisa is waiting for us to go to the nursery.’

‘And supposing I refuse?’

He didn’t answer that. ‘You intend to refuse?’ There was no reproach in his calm voice, but she knew that, in six months’ time, when Lisa’s short life had ended, she would never cease to reproach herself.

‘No strings?’ she asked.

‘None. I give you my word.’

‘Very well,’ said Fran, ‘but I’m doing it for Lisa.’

‘I hardly imagined that you would do it for me. Shall we go and tell her?’

Lisa was in her dressing-gown, ready for bed, eating something nourishing from a bowl. The face she turned towards them as they went over to her was so full of eager hope that Fran reflected that even if she had refused she would have changed her mind at the sight of it. She felt her hand taken in a firm, reassuring grasp. ‘Well, lieveling, here is your mama.’

She was aware of Nanny’s delighted face as Lisa flung her arms round her neck and hugged her, talking non-stop.

When she paused for breath the doctor said, ‘Lisa wants to know when and where. I think the best thing is for me to drive you back and you can discuss it with your aunts. And for reasons which I have already mentioned the wedding will have to be here.’ He smiled a little. ‘And you must wear a bride’s dress and a veil.’

Fran looked at him over Lisa’s small head. ‘Anything to make her happy.’

He said gravely, ‘At least we can agree upon that.’

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